351 U.S. Immigration and Nationality Law

This course will provide an overview of selected law and policy topics in immigration law. It will consider the following questions: what criteria are used in determining who can come to the United States as an immigrant or visitor? When and why may noncitizens be forced to leave? How should choices about admission and removal be implemented? It will focus on current topics in immigration enforcement, including the “sanctuary” movement, border enforcement, immigration detention, family separation, and the merger of criminal and immigration enforcement. Discussion will be based on a variety of sources, including statutes, caselaw, administrative enforcement guidance, social science research, and legal scholarship. Assessment will be based on written papers and class participation.

This course will provide an overview of selected law and policy topics in immigration law. It will consider the following questions: what criteria are used in determining who can come to the United States as an immigrant or visitor? When and why may noncitizens be forced to leave? How should choices about admission and removal be implemented? It will focus on current topics in immigration enforcement, including the “sanctuary” movement, border enforcement, immigration detention, family separation, and the merger of criminal and immigration enforcement. Discussion will be based on a variety of sources, including statutes, caselaw, administrative enforcement guidance, social science research, and legal scholarship. Assessment will be based on written papers and class participation.

Pre/Co-requisites

Enrollment Restrictions

This course opens – and may well close – with the Supreme Court’s impending consideration of the amended “travel ban” in Trump v. Int’l Refugee Assistance Project and Trump v. Hawaii. Discussion on that policy, lower court cases and Supreme Court briefs will serve as a primer on the federal constitutional powers and checks on immigration. We will then review historic constitutional precedents with emphasis on how they underpin and influence contemporary judicial interpretation.

From there, the course surveys the essential elements of immigration and nationality law and attendant procedures: the law of citizenship and naturalization, admission and removal, alien detention, asylum and other relief, and purportedly non-derogable protections under international conventions as implemented by U.S. law. Each week’s discussion on these subject matters will commence with a recent, significant and often controversial dispute, and examine how statutes, regulations, and precedents have guided, for better or worse, an actual or likely resolution. This course will require significant classroom participation.

There will be a comprehensive, final in-class exam. The course grade will be based on class participation and the final exam.

The goal of this course is to introduce students to U.S. immigration and citizenship law and procedure as well as discuss how immigration law intersects with public policy and state and federal laws in other areas. Using a practical hypothetical-based approach, students will be presented with problems and exercises for which they will need to evaluate federal and state statutes, regulations, agency memoranda, policy, and case law to develop appropriate legal strategies in the immigration context. In addition to discussing the concepts of admission and removal, options for legal status, and naturalization and citizenship; students will have the opportunity to hone skills related to client counseling and ethical representation, administrative law, litigation, and government policy.

Consistent class preparation and participation are essential to acquire an understanding of this topic: students will have assigned readings as background for class discussion and analysis of problems presented. There will be opportunities to prepare written agency or court submissions outside of class, and a comprehensive final in-class exam. The final grade will be based on class participation (25%), written exercises (25%), and the final exam (50%) (percentage break-down subject to change by September 6, 2016).

Pre/Co-requisites

Enrollment Restrictions

*Please note that this information is for planning purposes only, and should not be relied upon for the schedule for a given semester. Faculty leaves and sabbaticals, as well as other curriculum considerations, will sometimes affect when a course may be offered.